Ashwini Kumar Tewari Appointed as the New Managing Director and CEO of SBI Card

SBI Card, the country`s second largest credit card issuer announced that Mr. Ashwini Kumar Tewari has taken over as the company`s new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. The baton passes from Mr. Hardayal Prasad who retired on July 31, 2020, following a successful tenure during which the company achieved many significant accolades.  

Mr. Ashwini Kumar Tewari is a career banker with over 29 years’ experience with State Bank of India, including domestic and foreign postings. Prior to taking charge at SBI Card, since April 2017 Mr. Tewari held the position of Country Head of US Operations at SBI, based in New York. He also served as Vice Chairman of the State Bank of India (California) Board of Directors. 

Commenting on the development, Mr. Dinesh Khara, Managing Director, GB &S, State Bank of India said, “We are pleased to welcome Mr. Ashwini Kumar Tewari as the MD & CEO of SBI Card. He has demonstrated authentic, adept leadership in diverse positions both in India and abroad, during a successful career. We believe that he has the strategic vision and skill sets to lead the rapidly growing credit card business. We are confident that he will be able to further strengthen SBI Card’s market share and propel the business to new milestones.” 

Mr Ashwini Tewari, MD & CEO, SBI Card said, “We are at the cusp of an interesting time – there is a digital payments revolution sweeping India today and the country is firmly on the path to becoming a digital economy. SBI Card has achieved stellar success so far; and with the right focus on innovation, technology and customer service, the company remains poised to capitalise in a big way on the significantly underpenetrated Indian credit card market.  I look forward to steering SBI Card’s efforts to enhance customer experience at every touch point, fuelling growth and strengthening our position as industry leaders.” 

He added, “My immediate goal is to ensure sustained business performance as seen in the last two quarters, despite the challenging environment. In the long run, my endeavour would be to enable SBI Card to scale new heights along with the robust management team that has been driving the growth of this exceptional company.” 

Mr Tewari started his banking career with SBI in 1991 as a probationary officer. He has expertise in driving business, administration, and HR. He has experience in diverse leadership roles, extending across significant business functions like Credit, International and Retail Banking including Business Process Re-engineering. He was involved in the bank technology upgrades in Core Banking and Internet Banking platforms and acquisition of a new Trade Platform. 

In his previous assignments, he served as Regional Head and GM, East Asia Hong Kong and oversaw operations of SBI in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, and the neighbouring region. He also served as Deputy General Manager, (Operations & Information Systems), IBG, Mumbai and Head of SBI’s Cash Management Services. Mr. Tewari has served on the boards of International Institute of Bankers, New York and University of Washington Global Bankers Program. 

Mr. Tewari holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electrical). He is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP). He has a CFPCM certificate and is ACAMS certified. 

About SBI Card  : SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited (formerly known as SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited) (“SBI Card”) is a non-banking financial company that offer extensive credit card portfolio to individual cardholders and corporate clients which includes lifestyle, rewards, travel & fuel and banking partnerships cards along with corporate cards covering all major cardholders’ segments in terms of income profile and lifestyle. It has diversified customer acquisition network that enables to engage prospective customers across multiple channels. SBI Card is a technology driven company. 

The Company is listed on National Stock Exchange (“NSE”) and The Bombay Stock Exchange (“BSE”). 

Note: The brand name of the company is ‘SBI Card’ and it is registered in the name of ‘SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited’. The company is trading under the entity name ‘SBICARD’ on stock exchanges. Visit www.sbicard.com for more details. 

Internet's underground economy is worth $5 billion

Internet fraud has become a multi-billion dollar business with thieves stealing bank account information and credit card numbers and then selling them online.

Hi-tech thieves who specialize in card fraud have a credit line in excess of $5bn, research by the world’s largest maker of security software, Symantec, suggests .

Symantec calculated the figure to quantify the scale of fraud it found during a year-long look at the internet’s underground economy , according to reports.

Credit card numbers were the most popular item on sale and made up 31% of all the goods on offer. Coming in second were bank details which made up 20% of the items being offered on criminal chat channels. The $5.3bn figure was reached by multiplying the average amount of fraud perpetrated on a stolen card, $350, by the many millions Symantec observed being offered for sale. Similarly, the report said, if hi-tech thieves plundered all the bank accounts offered for sale they could net up to $1.7bn.

Symantec said it was likely that many of the cards offered for sale were invalid or cancelled and bank accounts closed but it added: “These figures are indicative of the value of the underground economy and the potential worth of the market.”

Credit card numbers have proved so popular among hi-tech thieves because they are easy to obtain and use for fraudulent purposes. Many of the methods favoured by cyber criminals, such as phishing schemes, database attacks and magnetic strip skimmers, are designed to steal credit card information , it said.

The existence of a ready market for any stolen data and the growing use of credit cards also helped maintain their popularity, it said.

“High frequency use and the range of available methods for capturing credit card data would generate more opportunities for theft and compromise and, thus, lead to an increased supply on underground economy servers,” said the report.

The price card thieves can expect for the numbers they offer for sale also varied by the country of origin. US card numbers were the cheapest because they were so ubiquitous — 74% of all cards offered for sale were from the US. By contrast numbers from cards issued in Europe and the Middle East commanded a premium because they were relatively rare.



Source: Agencies